It’s just after 8pm and I was going to clean the kitchen and then perhaps get back to the piece I am doing about white allies. It’s a warm and loving AND honest piece I’ve been working on because I’ve been observing white friends involved in the movement. And they need some help. And some love. We all need help honey. And …
Black Card Diaspora
Last week I spent time with 50 or so social justicey freedom fighting type folks. Yeah it was lit y’all. lol. About 30-40% of us there were Black – from the African diaspora. As we trained together at the same center that Rosa Parks trained at before she instigated the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, there was plenty of opportunity to discuss …
Birthday, First Books, DC & Z
Hello Beloved I absolutely adore birthdays. Life is a big deal and each day we’re still here means something. I’m especially cognizant of this in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. This year, as a means of recognizing my own life and investing in others, I’ve decided to give my birthday away to First Book DC. They provide brand …
National Geographic and Why Racism Sucks
Today, I intended to post something introspective about loss and life, not about racism. That was until about 5pm, when I went on Instagram and saw the National Geographic feed. I’m a nerd and I follow Nat Geo. If you haven’t started following them on Instagram, you definitely should. Their feed is a beautiful medley of nature photos and homages to human life. It …
6 Lessons I Learned from How I Met Your Mother that will Help Me Find the Mother in My Future Story
Today is a sad day. It is the end of an era. End of the line.Today is the day that the ground-breaking #Legendary show How I Met Your Mother comes to an end. After nine years, Ted Mosby will have finally met the woman of his dreams that will complete his adventure. I have grown up with this show, …
5 Crazy Side Effects of Oppression
Saturday, I took my bougie Black self to Trader Joe’s. I walked in behind a man of color who was wearing a hoodie and had the hood up. My initial thought was, “he should probably take that down so as not to scare the people in the store,” but then I thought, “what the hell are you thinking?!” This man …
Thankful for You (Te Extraño)
Happy Holidays to everyone!!! This month has been filled with joy, warm clothes, cold weather, friends, family, cheer, sadness, heartbreak, rejoice, prayer, praise, and love. So many emotions, feelings, and experiences and many, many memories. I am thankful to have a voice and life. I am grateful to have amazing friends and family around me. And I wrote the following …
Lest We Forget… A Christmas Remembrance
I’ve stopped writing about senseless killings and police brutality in 2015. I have stopped mainly because I’ve struggled to see what value I could add to the conversation. After 3 years of back-to-back, very public killings of unarmed Black people, after video after video of grisly murders, and after relatively no change in our legal system, I’ve felt that there …
I Say a Prayer
I say a prayer every night A prayer from deep in my soul Asking that the world becomes whole I pray that love will win the fight I pray for you; the one that spits in my face as you call me vicious names I pray for her; the one always by my side, cleaning up my bruised and bloody …
8 Awesome Covers That Got Me Through
This week was hectic, long, busy, and with injustices happening all around the world all over the news, I was all up in my emotions. I didn’t let anything slide this week, no matter where I was: at the store, at the Phoenix Art Museum, even walking to the mailbox, if I heard even the tiniest microaggression, I went off. …
They Can’t Bring You Down: a Villanelle Poem
Spending time with my extended family this past week, I realized that the number one thing I am grateful for is family and the lessons I have learned from them all. Seeing their resilience and their strong spirits and love made me realize just how much people can endure and still find the power and strength to share their joy. …
Take a Chance
Watch this 2.5 minute video and listen to the words. And smile dear ones. Still smiling? Or nah? lol. I love this musical, Mama Mia, and I love this humorous scene. It’s analogous to what I’m learning in my own life. It’s not likely that you are gonna find me jumping on tables (for this reason :p) and …
In My Dreams, a Poem
In my dreams, there is peace, love, harmony, and food My dreams always include some kind of meal In my dreams, justice is served and racism is long and dead There is no question about it; the peace in my dreams is real In my dreams, people love with every part of their being Everyone speaks their mind and says …
Poetry to Find Me Some Peace
The world can be draining at times. Injustices and terrible tragedies can weigh heavy on the soul. And sometimes I don’t know how to process everything and that feeling really takes me out of my comfort zone and I’ve learned that sometimes its necessary to get out of one’s comfort zone in order to heal and deal with the real …
A Woe that is Madness
Melville wrote, “There is a wisdom that is woe, but there is a woe that is madness.” Saturday night in Ann Arbor brought the kind of woe that bordered on what could be called madness. The day exemplified fall in the Midwest. Some leaves had fallen across yards and streets. Others, turned the bright colors of autumn, still clung to …
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Authors of Color
I love writing. I love reading. I love fiction. Stories of adventure and journeys through faraway worlds and exciting stories filled with horror and action have allowed me to have vacations from the struggles of the real world. Growing up fiction allowed me to leave West Phoenix for a short while and be somewhere else. But when it came to …